I can still remember it was just about 3 years ago, I was about to go shopping when I saw this animal shelter. That was where I first met Nika. The first encounter was not so good. She is very afraid and it is so unusual since it is only me and her in my apartment. For sure, she was afraid of me.
I think Nika doesn’t know how to be a dog. She was scared of leaving her crate, she showed zero affection on me, she doesn’t even like the grass outside. For days, riding with me in the car traumatized her, and a 30-minute visit to the park would mean a 3-hour nap on her favorite bed. She is afraid to go outside, she is afraid of me, and definitely of everything.
Although I don’t exactly know what happened to her back then, what I only know is that she was born in a farm with no other human being except his owner. She was always caged and could only go out for 10 minutes (I guess) to take a pee or poo. I think she was beaten and the kind of lifestyle had made her very afraid of everything. By the way, she already had puppies and maybe the previous owner sold them all out, that added to her misery.
But I would like to let you all know, after 6 months of forcing and training and pushing-her-to-go-outside things, Nika has now changed. She now is the one forcing me to go outside, she comes with me to work (I have a small business) and greets everyone who comes in and goes out, she now loves to ride a car, with her head out the window and feels like singing, she starts to play with other canines and roll over the grass. But the most important thing is she wasn’t afraid of me anymore. She loves me like I love her.
This story isn’t just for Nika. I too had changed. I began to think how good of a better person I am. Not just minding all the dollars I had spent on her, I was so happy I had her. I feel so good knowing how responsible I am, that I am able to take care of another person (She for me is a human being) other than myself. I just thanked God I was able to enter that animal shelter at that exact moment.